Tricks To Facilitate First World Problems.

My life isn’t spectacularly hard, but I curse when I oversleep, I overthink things and I get really upset when the food I wanted to eat has spoiled or has been eaten by Hungry boyfriend. I have a fair share of girl, first world and nerd problems. Luckily I am solution-minded and by experience, I’ve created a few easy ways to let my days be a little more succesful or a little less stressful.

I let my Evening Self assumes my Morning Self is brain-dead.

I always make big plans for my mornings. About going to the 06:30 yoga class, about juicing a tidal wave of green juice before work, about cleaning the house and splitting an atom. But when I wake up at 05:30, I understand very little, I feel very unmotivated and I don’t want to make any more effort than is absolutely necessary.

So what I do now is set everything up the night before. I put out my clothes, pack my bag, make my lunch, pre-juice, set my alarm and sometimes even write a little list of things I need to do before leaving or need to check if I have them on me. When I wake up and everything is ready, the only things required from me are dressing, grabbing everything and maybe even a banana. Let’s be serious, any tired monkey can do that.

It also motivates me because if I turn off my alarm now and sleep in, I’ll wake up to the parade of things ready for The Glorious Day I Should Have Had But I Did Not Because I Am A Lazy Fuck. I find that a little depressing.

My Today Self assumes Tomorrow’s Self won’t be in the mood to do that shit either.

Let’s be honest, when am I ever going to be in the mood to clean my study? Or do laundry? Or clean out the sink, which is probably my least favorite thing to do in the world. When am I ever going to be all excited to do chores, boring grading or paperwork? Exactly.

So I try to do things today, instead of tomorrow. If I have guests over, I do the dishes straight afterwards. I change the sheets and do the laundry now, because I know I won’t be any more enthusiastic about Laundry Day when I’ve postponed it. What I DO like, is the sense of accomplishment after and knowing Tomorrow Self won’t have to deal with it. You’re welcome, Tomorrow Self. You’re welcome.

(Not going to lie, this is relatively new. I used to be the worst, handing things in at the last minute, postponing things I didn’t like, but I’m really bettering my life here. I have kept up my paperwork so well this last month that the ladies in administration are a little worried about me.)

There are things in life I just rather not do. Cleaning the sink for example. So inside of me, I hear this whiny little voice telling me I shouldn’t do it because it’s no fun and I’d rather be watching New Girl. But I’ve visualized this voice as an annoying toddler who deserves to be told ‘no’ when he’s like this. The rest of me is relatively sane and capable, knowing I should do my laundry and my paperwork, because it makes my life a lot easier if I just do it. Plus, the voice of reason sounds a lot better than my Inner Whiner.

You can’t only do the things you get excited over and that make you feel all awesome. Life also holds a bucket of mandatory tasks you should do, because they need to be done. For me that’s laundry and paperwork. For you they might be visiting your family in law, exercising, staying away from Fruit Loops or listening to a boss you’re not fond of. Whatever it is, it’s good to do it anyway.

Small Faciliators

– So much healthy, good food in your house that you can’t even find the junk food stacked somewhere, so ‘you’re stuck’ eating a big ass salad.

– To-Do lists. I’m telling you, even if I get overly ambitious and write down 3421 things to do in 24 hours, they still help me be effective and get shit done.

– If you’ve got to be somewhere, Google Map the location the day before. That way you can really (and correctly) estimate the distance and most appropriate form of getting there, instead of under the influence of increased stress levels on the day itself when you’re already running late.

– Keep moving. Walk around, sit only when you have to do things sitting down like send an e-mail or find something on-line. The more you keep moving, the more you keep doing, especially around the house.